A large body of prior art exists in conjunction with the composition of matter, preparation and uses of silane compounds and to a lesser extent, organofunctional silanes, in rubber and other applications. For instance, the prior art describes reactions of difunctional and trifunctional methylsilanes with diols and triols. It is also known in the art that when difunctional silanes are reacted with ethylene glycol, cyclic dimers are obtained although no cyclic monomers are reported. In addition, when other glycols are reacted with difunctional silanes polymers are obtained.
Also known in the art are bicyclic compounds prepared from tetrafunctional silanes and glycols, as well as bicyclic compounds prepared from dimethyldialkoxysilanes and pentaerythritol. However, these compounds do not have organofunctional groups on the silane and are not useful as coupling agents, crosslinkers or adhesion promoters.
The prior art describes cyclic compounds with dimethyldialkoxysilanes and dimethyl- and methylvinylalkoxysilanes with 2-butene-1,4-diol that form a cyclic compound, which are used as parasiticides.
Furthermore, the transesterification of alkoxysilanes with ethylene glycol to give non-cyclic silane compounds, which are soluble in water and insoluble in benzene, is known in the art. These non-cyclic silane compounds are used as masonry water repellents.
Also described in the prior art is the preparation of cyclic silanes from the reaction of dimethyldialkoxysilanes with glycerin. These materials polymerize spontaneously at room temperature to give polymeric materials with high viscosity.
Cyclic glycol esters of difunctional alkenyl silanes that are useful additives in the production of organopolysiloxane adhesive compositions have also been described in the art.
The above-mentioned prior art does not address the use of silane containing organofunctional groups with reduced volatile organic compound, referred herein as VOC, or no VOC by the use of heterocyclic silicon groups. Accordingly, there exists a need for improved silanes.